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Warlock builds
Warlock talent builds are many and varied. Each tree is worth spec'ing up to 41 points in, and many Destruction builds invest more than 41 points in their primary tree. Regardless of which path a player eventually chooses, it is sure to be littered with many tough choices. To play around with the build talents and maximize DPS for raids and instances, be sure to check out this Warlock DPS Calculator ;See also: * Warlock Talents 201 * Warlock Builds pre-TBC Leveling to 60 Before level 60, one must consider whether or not a full-Demonology build is viable, since level 50 is the earliest one can obtain a Felguard. With the availability of respeccing, a warlock might consider taking a hybrid destruction/affliction build with access to Shadowburn and instant-cast Corruption, both of which provide more immediate benefits. Full Demonology builds only start to show comparable benefits around level 40. Around level 50, then, the warlock can respec to receive their Felguard. Demonology builds are used more for survival, and do not have the capability of killing mass amounts of things without drinking water or eating food. However, a warlock that goes down the affliction talent tree can use an imp(on passive) and drain life to keep at full life, then at the end of the battle gain all mana back with dark pact leaving little to no down time. It can be said that an affliction build is the way to go when leveling for several reasons. Demonology generally deals less damage, while destruction is worse due to more downtime. All one needs to effectively use an affliction build is some practice with DoT spells and Fear/Howl of Terror. The technique is to pull several mobs at once, place DoTs on all targets and then fear them. Drain Life is then used to regain health, which can be converted into mana. Affliction The DoTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana-effective spells available for the Warlock. That is, the amount of damage per mana is higher compared to Direct Damage spells like Shadow Bolt. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more. There are problems using DoTs in parties and raids. There is a risk that the mob is killed before the completion of a DoT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage near the end of its duration. If this happens, then mana and time will be wasted. Unstable Affliction/Shadowburn 45/5/11 Talent Calculator Link This build goes to the end of the affliction tree to get another DoT (Unstable Affliction) which does a large amount of instant damage if dispelled and silences the dispeller. It also has 11 points in Destruction to get Shadowburn and 5 points in Demonology for Demonic Embrace. Notes: *2 points in Suppression gives a 99% chance of hitting an equal level character, which is the most possible. Points from Shadow Embrace or Empowered Corruption may be moved here if combating higher level mobs/players. *Improved Howl of Terror, Contagion, and Unstable Affliction at the end of the tree make this build much more suitable for PvP. *Shadowburn and a faster Shadow Bolt give the build an extra punch. *You may want to change this build to 43/7/11 and get the improved Healthstone which is a real bonus in instances, battlegrounds and especially in arena battles. Contagion/Demonic Sacrifice (SM/DS with Contagion) 40/21/0 Talent Calculator Link This build mainly leaves out Unstable Affliction to get Demonic Sacrifice. It combines heavy DoT damage with the main benefits from the Demonology tree, including DS, which offers a lot of flexibility. In general, sacrificing the Succubus for extra damage or the Voidwalker for extra health regeneration is preferred. The major downsides of this build are the losses of the minion and of two Affliction ultimates, namely Dark Pact and Unstable Affliction. Whereas the former spell can be partly replaced by a sacrificed Felhunter or Voidwalker (at the cost of another sacrifice), the latter has no viable substitution (neither as an additional DoT nor as a powerful weapon against dispelling classes). Dark Pact/Ruin (SM/Ruin with DP) 40/0/21 This build enhances the SM/Ruin-build with Affliction talents, mainly to improve Shadow Bolt's damage potential and DoTs. Talent Calculator Linkhttp://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12023710&sid=1 Dark Pact/Emberstorm (Natural Evolution of SM/Ruin) 31/0/30 This SM/Ruin-build focuses on the Destruction tree to give the Warlock more flexibility with the two schools. Talent Calculator Link Affliction/Demonology build 42/19/0 This build combines mana-efficiency with DPS. Improved Curse of Weakness, Improved Curse of Agony, and Malediction were all taken so any of the curses you are in charge of are all more effective. Improved Drain Soul was taken for the threat reduction effect. Improved Imp was taken for the 30% increase to Blood Pact. When you are raiding, an Imp should be used in passive for both Blood Pact and as a mana-battery for Dark Pact. Talent Calculator Link Unstable Affliction/Destructive Reach raid build 44/0/17 This build a key warlock raiding build, and provides many important raid synergy effects, while providing decent damage to new warlocks. Points should be moved from Fel Concentration and Improved Curse of Agony to Suppression to bridge the spell hit rating cap, if one should exist. Malediction provides much-needed damage boost to Curse of Shadows and Curse of the Elements. Shadow Embrace reduces damage done by the debuffed target and helps reduce the healing required on the main tank. Curse of Exhaustion helps the warlock kite which is useful in certain situations, such as Vashj's Coilfang Strider adds. Talent Calculator Link Demonology The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage. Felguard Raiding Build (7/43/11) Pros: * A viable PvP spec * Soul Link provides survivability * Moderately high DPS * Decent grindability * Different pets give flexibility ** Felguard can offtank or DPS ** Succubus gives additional CC-ability, increases damage, and can cut mob damage by 10% ** Felhunter gives anti-caster ability and survivability in resistance fights ** Imp buffs party HP, minor fire resistance, and a damage shield Cons: * Requires alot of micro-management * Felguard is vulnerable to area attacks * Less synergy to a raid than an affliction-spec Talent Calculator Link Having a Felguard raiding spec is rather involved, requiring you to keep track on your Felguard's positioning, abilities and health. One of the major drawbacks for this spec is keeping your felguard healed, Health Funnel should be used sparingly as it takes time from doing damage. Using the provides much-needed survivability for your Felguard, and the two-piece bonus of Corruptor Raiment greatly helps reduce the acive healing the he requires. Having a shadow priest with Vampiric Embrace in the group also provides passive healing. Buffs on your Felguard that increase his stamina and intelligence, providing you with 15% per point spelldamage increase as per Demonic Knowledge. Therefore it is doubly important that he does not die, as he will lose all buffs on death. It is possible to unsummon and resummon him to fully heal him and perserve the buffs. The Fel Domination and Master Summoner talents reduce this downtime to half a second, aswell as one additional second of Global Cooldown. This spec is highly effective for tanking Leotheras' Demon Form, Grand Astromancer Capernian in Kael'Thas' fight, blue beam tanking at netherspite, and several other mobs with spell-based attacks. Felguard Pure-Raiding Build (0/44/17) This build is to maximize damage in 25 man raids but requires a lot of micro-management and understanding of all fights, even trash pulls. Talents that appear in the above spec but were not taken for this spec, like Mana Feed and Shadowburn, were not taken because they aren't needed for 25 man content since Cleave and Anguish will be off most of the time and Shadowburn is generally only for 0/21/40 raid builds. Since Shadowbolts are the main source of damage, Devastation is crucial for the increased crit and Destructive Reach helps from hitting the threat cap too soon. This spec has high gear requirements and using it without at least 2 pieces of Tier 5 is generally inadvisable, the is also highly recommended to help minimize damage to your Felguard from AoE effects from bosses like Void Reaver. Talent Calculator Link Felguard Leveling Build (7/41/11) This spec is focused on three things: * Survivability * Low to Zero Downtime * High DPS Talent Calculator Link The general strategy is to send the Felguard in, and while you have mana, Shadowbolt or Immolate. Once you are out of mana, Life Tap to full and Drain Life. Grinding mobs becomes a cycle of fast kills followed by much slower kills. Corruption and CoA are generally avoided when soloing with this build because a lot of the DoT ticks will never have a chance to hit the already dead mobs. If you find that you're wasting mana with Corruption, you may want to put the first 5 points in the Affliction tree towards Suppression instead. Demonic Tactics / Ruin (MD/Ruin with DT) (0/40/21) This spec would provide the basic beneficial survivability and stat boosting abilities from demonology, while getting bonus crit damage from destruction. Talent Calculator Link The ideas behind this talent specification are: * The Demonology talents give a lot of +dmg, especially with a summoned pet. It is not unknown to use an Imp on passive which will lessen threat, but a Succubus will add additional 10% damage instead (matching Shadow Mastery in the Affliction tree), as well as acting like a DoT. * Demonic sacrifice can be used for cases where there is no use of a pet (especially some boss fights and fights with AoE problems). * Soul Link is as always nice to have in PvP, but also because of the additional 5% +dmg. * The main damage in this build is based on only doing CoA (in case the mob lives long enough), and then spamming Shadow Bolts. This will take good advantage of the improvements in the Destruction tree. * While +crit is of less interest for affliction builds, this build will benefit highly from it. * An alternative build is to spend 5 points on improving the Succubus (Improved Succubus and Improved Lash of Pain) instead of 5% increased crit chance (Demonic Tactics). While this will lessen the Shadowbolts a little, it will allow for a more deadly Succubus with improved seduction. Can be quite useful in many instances. * Talents in healthstones are benefitial for raids, as a player can hold up to 3 of the varying amount they heal (2080/2288/2496) for the different amount of talents you put in it (0/1/2). Very useful if other warlocks in your guild are lacking talents in this. Voidwalker/Felguard (20/41/0) Phase One: Voidwalker Final Build: Felguard These builds are for demonology/affliction based PvE leveling and soloing. The combination of a buffed pet and Improved Drain Soul greatly reduces the chance to pull aggro from your minion. Drain Life becomes viable for damage and health/mana regen at lvl 30, and using your minion as a strong tank leaves plenty of life left to tap. Lay down DoTs, Drain Life or Shadow Bolt spam (mana efficiency vs. DPS) till mob is almost dead, then Drain Soul (rank 1) at last second for 15% mana regen. Life Tap between fights. This maintains mana with high survivability and good DPS. As a bonus, you will have plenty of souls and enough mana for the occasional shadow bolt spam. A re-spec is recommended while leveling because Voidwalker and Felguard benefit from a few different talents. Since the demonology tree is very defense-heavy until the upper tiers (soul link, demonic knowledge, master demonologist), affliction talents are used before the Felguard becomes available. Start with Improved Corruption and Improved Drain Soul. Second, fill demonology down to Improved Voidwalker. Finally, increase your DPS with the affliction tree until you reach level 50-55, when you can re-spec to the Felguard based build. This will noticeably increase your DPS, while building up your mana/life regen on the road to 70. Misc Builds: (instant dots and the area effect corruption nukes hit 2500+ each target) Heavy Damage Build PVP Alternative Heavy Damage PVP Very Fun Crit-O-Matic PVP SL/SL (Soul Link and Siphon Life) (21+/31+/0) 24/37/0 This build combines the survivability provided by the Demonology tree and the health regaining abilities from the Affliction tree. It particularly shines in solo and small-scale PvP, where it normally allows to "tank" enemies by constantly draining their life. The negative aspects are its susceptibility to dispel effects and the relatively low damage output, compared to pure damage builds. Notes: *Due to the heavy use of Drain Life and Corruption, Nightfall can be a powerful addition. *Note: It was originally stated that Shadow Embrace no longer benefits Soul Siphon. However, it has been experimentally confirmed that it does. The text in the notes was referring to other effects that would process on a debuff or other such effects. Destruction Firelock PvP Build (7/7/47) This is an extremely high damage PvP spec. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IV0bZbxZVx0tr0tAuAo This build empowers the Warlock's direct damage abilities (of which most are Fire-based, which gives the spec its name). It provides the Warlock with good burst damage (mainly due to Conflagrate, Shadowburn, and Backlash) and high crits (Ruin). It is very good against other Fire- or Shadow-based classes (especially Fire Mages, Shadow Priests and other Warlocks). Soul Leech allows the Warlock to heal themselves. The build also includes talents from other trees which are often considered necessary, namely Demonic Embrace, Improved Corruption, and Improved Life Tap. The downside of this build is its relatively high mana consumption. DS/S&F (0/21/40) This is a heavy damage raid spec. Fire [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbxczIdzZxx0tr0tVuV PvE Shadow [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbxszIbzZEx0tr0khhi PvE Miasmus's Build PvE Note: This build for carry more Healthstones. Depending on the members of your raid you may want to make your build either shadow or fire. If you raid with a lot of fire Mages(Improved Scorch) then you may want to use the Fire DS/S&F raid spec, but if you raid with shadow priests(Shadow Weaving) then you may want to use the Shadow DS/S&F raiding build. This build is similar to the old lvl 60 DS/Ruin build except instead of sacrificing the Succubus to buff your Shadow Bolts, you sac your Imp to buff your [[Fire] spell damage. With all damage increasing talents, the warlock does quite devastating damage. Another advantage is the opportunity to switch to a greatly improved Shadow Bolt whenever Fire is not a viable choice. The spec excels at raiding, whereas it is not particularly viable in PvP and solo PvE, especially due to its huge mana consumption. There's a powerful synergy between such a warlock and a fire mage. Both classes can place a debuff on the target which increases Fire damage done by up to 15% (Curse of Elements and Improved Scorch). Notes: *Soul Leech is a powerful talent in a raid environment, allowing the warlock to keep their mana and health relatively high. One option is to take it instead of Backlash. An alternative point of view regarding the 0/21/40 spec, and increasingly the dominant one amongst raiding guilds, is that the 0/21/40 warlock should use Shadow Bolt exclusively, in order to maximize the uptime of Improved Shadow Bolt, whenever there are multiple warlocks and shadow priests present. The high standalone dps of Shadowbolt, coupled with the prolonged uptime of ISB, gives the 0/21/40 shadowbolt-oriented lock both powerful dps along with amazing raid utility. If the warlock decides to opt for this approach, it is possible to spec into Soul Leech as well as Backlash, as no points are necessary within fire talents. Comments A common misconception with 0/21/40 is to Sac your imp for the + fire damage, however, due to the fact that even with Emberstorm (+10% to fire spells) a warlocks Shadowbolt will still have a better spell coefficient than Incinerate(http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_Damage_Coefficients#Warlock_Coefficients). Even before factoring in the ISB talent, the "firelock" is generaly less dps and less mana efficient in raids. Further more any +fire damage a mage applys to the target is the same or in most raids less than the +shadow damge a shadow priest applys. Blazing Fury (7/13/41) This build is similar to the one above but without Demonic Sacrifice. The basic idea is to keep up Curse of Elements, cast an Immolate, two-three Incinerate and blow up the Immolate with Conflagrate. DS is not to be recommended because it requires you to sacrifice your pet, which means that you will loose Blood Pact, which is very essential while grouping. Instant Corruption and Improved Life Tap are more useful than the talents beyond 13 points in Demonology. This is a very high damage group build which offers a very good alternative to a heavy Affliction spec. This is a very good spec for both PVE and PVP. If you are looking for a change from spamming Shadowbolt this spec might be just for you. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IV0bZfx00cZVx0tr0tVuq - View spec Nightfall / Shadowfury (NF/Conf with Shadowfury) (18/0/43) Heavy Destruction (Heavy Destruction 2.0.1) (--/--/41+) This spec has many of the benefits that a 0/21/40 spec has, but lacking in solid damage output. The only major difference is Shadowfury, which could be very useful in certain situations where aoe is necessary, and in pvp. If you are commiting this many talents into this build, its hard to justify putting the rest of the talents in affliction, as corruption will not be used very often, except on longer fights, trash mobs will go down too fast to make it practical without your damage focused on it like an affliction lock would, and the only reason would be improved Life Tap (although very nice to have). And also you will lack the talents to gain anything useful from Demonology, although healthstones are benefitial to everyone (and a player can have up to 3 healthstones in their inventory)and bonus stamina,health, mana, and the talents in Demonic Aegis are well worth getting. Shadow Conflagrate (7/0/44) 7/0/44 This build is a good balanced PvP and PvE build. It can deal great amount of damage in little time. It also has a variety of talents that help a lot in PvP such as nether protection which will make you defeat shadow priests/other warlocks without it/fire mages 70% of the time with a 30% chance to become immune to most of their spells. Intensity gives a 70% chance to resist interruption in any destruction spell which makes you able to shoot shadowbolts while a warrior/rogue is beating on you. With backlash and devastation you got a total of +8% crit chance with spells. In raiding PvE the DPS is very good. It is comparable with SM/ruin and other older builds because shadow and flame adds a 20% more of spell damage to your shadow bolts which makes up for the loss of 10% damage in shadow with SM or 15% with succubus sacrificed. Improved life tap lets you have better mana efficiency in raids.instant corruption is great for spamming in PvP. Soul leech is more friendly in a PvE environment but still useful sometimes in PvP because it has a good list of spells that have a pretty big chance to heal you(30%). Shadowfury is a great spell to play with in PvP it is an AoE stun doing around 500ish damage with the ability to crit(The only other warlock AoE with this ability is Seed of Corruption). Shadowfury doesn't prove that great in PvE but it isn't bad if you consider it as a shadowburn with no shard cost and a stun. This build is perfectly balanced between PvP/PvE(raiding) Also, you may put the remaining 10 points into Affliction to get Nightfall. This will make you have 2 chances for an instant shadowbolt. 17/0/44 PvP Only - Shadow (28/0/33) This build is intended entirely for PvP, no thought is given to PvE applications, and uses Shadow damage exclusively with Shadowbolt as the main DD spell. Includes: -Improved Shadow Bolt (Procs an effect to increase next SB damage) -Bane (Reduces casting time for SB) -Ruin (Increases SB critical strike damage) -Devastation (Increases SB critical strike chance) -Backlash (Instant cast SB chance upon getting struck) -Nightfall (Instant cast SB chance upon Corruption or Dain Life tick) -Shadow Mastery (Increased damage for all spells of this build) Combine this with: -Improved Corruption (Instant cast Corruption for more Nightfall procs) -Soul Siphon (For drain tanking and Nightfall procs) -Fel Concentration (Less wasted ticks from Drain Life) -Empowered Corruption (Corruption does more damage) -Siphon Life (req'd for Shadow Mastery and also increases Soul Siphon effect) -Shadow Embrace (Increases Soul Siphon effect) -Shadowburn (Benefits from Shadow Mastery and adds another instant cast DD) In addition to quicker-casting Shadowbolts, this build offers the talents for instant-cast shadowbolts. Also includes increases healing from both Siphon Life and Drain Life. Throw on Curse of Shadow, Corruption, and start Drain Life. The two DoTs benefit from many talents, including Shadow Mastery, and do good damage. The Curse benefits PvP teammates. If an enemy attacks backlash can proc, or alternatively Nightfall could proc from Drain Life or Corruption. There is an element of luck in this talent in that it includes Nightfall and Backlash. An argument for this arrangement is that (a) If you're not getting attacked then you are free to Drain Life to proc Nightfall or even cast Shadowbolt. (b) Warlocks have no nice instant cast DDs, which are very important due to interrupt when getting attacked. Therefore between Nightfall and Backlash you have a good chance of getting an instant cast DD with this build that you would not get otherwise. This build does only one damage type, shadow, so is weak against any player with a lot of shadow resistance. Therefore some spell penetration from gear is recommended. PvP Only - Fire (20/0/41) This build is intended entirely for PvP, and uses Fire damage almost exclusively. This build is similar to the Shadow build above it, but uses a few more instant cast DD spells. Incinerate, Immolate, Conflagrate, Shadowburn, Shadowfury, as well as Shadowbolt, from Nightfall and Backlash procs give this build the best possible burst damage a warlock can achieve. The first three of which benefit from Emberstorm are expected to constitute the majority of the offensive spell makeup. As with the previous build, this build can be weak against resistant players, so some spell penetration from gear is recommended. PvP Fire/Imp Demonic Sac (0/21/40): http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZfxczI0zZVx0trhtVzV Demonic Sacrifice-builds Here are two, good level 70 Demonic Sacrifice builds, 19/21/21 (Pretty much a jack of all trades) - little harder to play than the above but better efficiency on longer fights and a little more damage in that build. You put Curse of Shadow, Corruption and spam Shadowbolt and always refresh your Corruption for the chance to get Nightfall to proc. Your Drain Life hits harder than the previous build, your Shadowbolts hit for less, but with Corruption, you get that damage back it's a little easier for your aggro since you get less spike damage. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZbxszIbzZEx0tr0khhi 0/21/40 (Shadow bolt Spammer) With this build you can ultimately make nearly no mistakes. You use only Curse of Shadow then Shadow Bolt all the way. This build grabs the 20% damage from Shadow and Flame and then gets the extra Shadow damage from Demonic Sacrifice. The point spent in Improved Voidwalker is just a filler talent to get to Demonic Sacrifice. 30/21/0 19/21/11 One thing you should know: These builds are good for leveling, but still flexible enough to work for both PvP or instancing. Demonic Sacrifice grants the abilities to grind solo without even buying water or food (Sacrifice the Voidwalker for 3% health regen every 4 seconds. Seeing as you should have 3000 - 4500 HP pre-MC, depending on your gear, this should be a piece of cake). Nightfall is great for grinding as it allows you to fire off instant Shadowbolts, improvements on drain life (Imp. Drain Life / Fel Concentration) are also great. After these mandatory choices, it's up to you whether you want to put 12 points in Destruction for better PvE DPS or crits, or rather just do Shadow Mastery and Siphon Life for better grinding. Both work out well in any case, it's up to you. Of course, you need to have instant Corruption and Demonic Embrace for this talent build to work out. Seeing as there's no better places to put the points anyway in the first tier of Demonology and Affliction, it should hardly be a problem anyway. If you choose to use the 12 points in Destruction after getting Nightfall and Amplify Curse in Affliction, you should also get Bane and Improved Shadow Bolt. This is about what you should need to know here. 7/23/21 This is a variation of the above builds, still centered around Demonic Sacrifice, but paired with Ruin instead of Nightfall for unlimited high damage Shadow Bolts and Immolate in soloing and instances. ---------- Category:Guides Category:Warlocks Category:Talents